British Production of ‘Sweeney Todd’ to Set Up Shop Off Broadway

The pies served in the Broadway musical “Waitress” come with a main dish of romance. But a new batch arriving downtown in February will be much more sinister. The Barrow Street Theater will be reconfigured into an imitation pie shop to host a British production of the musical “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.”

The production, from the Tooting Arts Club, originated in 2014 at Harrington’s Pie and Mash Shop in London, where audience members sat at tables. Stephen Sondheim, the show’s composer, attended the production, which received strong reviews in the British media and transferred to a cocktail lounge in the West End.

As in London, pie and mash will be served before the show at Barrow Street. (Assuredly, they will not be made with the same meat that Sweeney Todd and Mrs. Lovett use.) The theater, which will seat 130, will be adjusted to try to capture the intimacy and atmosphere of Harrington’s, which held just 35 audience members.

“Sweeney Todd” had its Broadway premiere in 1979, starring Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury; Michael Cerveris and Patti LuPone played the leads in the 2005 Broadway revival.

No casting has been announced for the Off Broadway version, which will be directed by Bill Buckhurst, who oversaw the London production. Preview performances will begin Feb. 14, with the official opening on March 1. More information can be found at SweeneyToddNYC.com.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page C3 of the New York edition with the headline: ‘Sweeney Todd’ to Serve Pies Off Broadway. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe